


Ring in the New

by MaverickZ3r0



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Fluff, Holidays, M/M, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaverickZ3r0/pseuds/MaverickZ3r0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fluffy New Year’s ficlet. During the first year they’re married, Chrom wants to do something nice with Robin for the new year, but things don’t go quite as planned. Very fluffy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ring in the New

**Author's Note:**

> Fits into the same unnamed 'verse as The Map is Not the Territory, but neither needs to be read to understand the other. Happy New Year's!

“You’re doing it again.”

Robin glanced up from the parchment he was working over detailing the most efficient allocation of troops to the north to stave off Risen attacks while reconstruction teams worked to see Chrom framed in the doorway of his office. “Doing…what? My job?”

“Overworking,” Chrom corrected, stepping forward to peer over his shoulder at the parchment. “We already have people over there.”

“Well, yes,” he acknowledged. “But I might be able to free up a few units for the east if I rework it properly.”

“Perfectionist.” Chrom sighed, then reached over to lift his hand physically off the page. Robin made a wordless noise of protest. “I agree that your duties are vital, but this does not fall under your duties. It falls under perfectionism. That isn’t needed.”

Robin gave a grumpy sigh, and attempted unsuccessfully to tug his hand free. “I don’t suppose you’ll be swayed by the fact that it’s the middle of the day and I ought to be working?”

“No.” Chrom swept his free arm toward the window. “No one is working today, save the more vital reconstruction teams and anyone fighting Risen. It’s a holiday.”

“It is?” He glanced at the calendar, but he’d stopped marking days off several weeks before Yule so it was little help. “…Hmm.”

“You’ve forgotten the date?” Chrom asked, half-amused and half-exasperated. “Of course you have. That settles it. Let’s get you a winter coat, we’re going outside.”

“I only have the one coat,” he muttered. “I haven’t…been to the seamstress yet.”

Chrom gave him an incredulous look. “We were married in August.”

“…Yes,” he acknowledged unwillingly. “That’s only…four and a half months. Hmm.”

Tug, tug at his hand. Robin sighed and let go of his quill, raising his left hand open-palmed in mock surrender.

“All right, all right, you’ve got me.” He stood up and Chrom let go of his hand, letting them stand close in a way that with anyone else Robin would have called a serious violation of personal space. “Did you actually have a plan beyond dragging me away from my workroom?”

“I thought we’d improvise.” That close, he could almost taste the words Chrom was speaking on his lips. Robin swallowed. “Does that work for you?”

“Ahhh…” He cast a backward glance at his work, which he realized was, in fact, superfluous at the moment. “Well. I guess. How cold is it outside?”

“Stick close and you’ll be fine.” A wide smile, and he could easily fill in the blanks there. “Come on.”

“You know, you don’t have to try and trick me into letting you put your arm around my waist while we walk,” Robin said, tone wavering slightly. “You can just ask. At this point I doubt there’s anything we could do to scandalize anyone, and I’m fairly certainly no one would think anything odd of a married couple walking together.”

Probably they had lost the ability to scandalize people since the day they had announced their engagement, which had come on the heels of Lissa finding them in bed together that morning. It had been innocuous at the point she had found them, but that didn’t mean much to the rumour mill. Robin had later pointed out that no one ought to be shocked, as not only had they made very little attempt to hide their relationship but he had never actually had a room of his own when they were in Ylisstol.

“True,” Chrom acknowledged. “I suppose I just don’t think of you as a very publicly affectionate person. I thought you might mind even if you were freezing and needed the warmth.”

“I’m not…” And then he stopped, because that little bit of an attempt to hide things had been his idea, and he was the one who pulled his hood up over his head when he was uncomfortable. “All right, I concede the point. Consider this your official permission to hold me in public.”

He felt his cheeks burn as he said it, and a quick glance to Chrom at his side showed a similar, albeit lighter, blush–although he did wrap his arm around Robin’s waist the moment he got permission.

 _Really,_ he thought, exasperated with himself, _we’re married. Why do we continue to act like lovestruck teenagers around each other?_

…Well, in the technical sense they were both teenagers, for another few months at least. So there was that. But still, he felt that considering all they’d been through, they ought to be adult enough to not become bashful over the simplest things just because they weren’t in private.

_For gods’ sakes we take each others’ clothes off most every night, why are we so ridiculous about completely innocent things?_

So, Robin concluded, he was shy about being affectionate in public. He never would have put any synonym of shy on his list of personality traits before, but the evidence suggested he made exceptions for lovestruck idiocy.

They reached the outer castle gates and exchanged greetings with the guards on duty before heading out into the city. Robin reached up and tugged his hood up a bit, pulling it around his neck as a makeshift half-scarf. Chrom noticed the motion and drew him closer casually without breaking their stride.

“I like this, but perhaps we should see about getting you a scarf.” Chrom’s breath was warm on his ear when he leaned in to speak. “I have a feeling it would work much better.”

“That sounds nice,” he managed. Chrom, he noted, seemed perfectly fine in a light jacket with no scarf. “Do you need one?”

“Not really. I have my cape.”

“I have my hood,” Robin countered, slightly annoyed at the mother-henning. “Your cape’s nowhere near your neck. Where’s the nearest scarf shop?”

Chrom raised an eyebrow. “Scarf shop?” he asked diplomatically. “I suppose you mean…”

“Yes, yes, you know what I meant,” he mumbled, burrowing into his hood. “Or do we have to have those made custom too?”

“I think there’s a few shops with winter clothing around.” Not laughing at him, not quite, but it was certainly the closest Chrom had gotten to making fun of him in recent memory. He wasn’t going to live down ‘scarf shop’ for a while.

“Let’s just go then.” He huffed, his breath coming out in a visible puff. “You can stop smirking.”

Chrom had on potentially the worst innocent face Robin had ever seen. It was just a touch _too_ angelic to be convincing on anyone, let alone him. “I wasn’t saying anything.”

“Remind me to play you at poker sometime.” Strip poker maybe. Chrom couldn’t bluff worth beans and that was definitely something to exploit in his favour. “…Say, what holiday is it? I know I didn’t miss Yule, we had that obnoxiously loud sing-along in the mess.”

“It’s New Year’s Eve,” Chrom said, casting him a look. “Most people take the week between the two, or at least large parts of it, off as well. Not that that was feasible for us this year since we’ve just gotten most things sorted out, but we could at least have the actual holidays off.”

“You know I have a terrible allergy to not working,” Robin deadpanned. “I break out in hives all down my arms unless it’s from passing out of exhaustion from working.”

Chrom chuckled lightly. “All right, message taken. I’ll ease off on you a bit–I know you only want to help as much as you can. But that involves resting yourself and broadening your horizons a bit too. There’s not anything so urgent that you need to work into the night at the moment.”

“I feel so useless if I can’t do anything.” He made a frustrated noise. “We were on the go most of the time–sitting still, or doing anything just for fun, seems like wasting time. I know this is the peace we’ve worked for, and yet I can’t seem to enjoy it properly.”

Their footsteps crunched in the snow as general passerby noises went on around them. After a few minutes of silence, Robin turned his head to see Chrom regarding him thoughtfully. It was a bit unnerving, since he didn’t have that usual lost in thought look, but one as if he were seeing something about Robin for the first time.

“What?” he asked, a little uncertainly. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Not really.” Chrom reeled him in a little closer. “Just reminding me that you haven’t really known peace before. Shortly after we picked you up, we were all thrown into a war.”

“Ah,” he sighed theatrically. “Yes. My luck at work again, I fear. Don’t worry, it just makes the memories I do have more precious, and I’ll find something to do with myself that isn’t making you dog me over my sleep schedule.”

They reached a clothing store with gloves and scarves sitting on folded tables out front. The shopkeeper was seated there with a mug of something steaming and hot, and while she did a double-take at their appearances and obviously recognized them she still managed to serve them without any special treatment. Robin ended up with a thick red woolen scarf that wound around his neck several times and still came down nearly to his knees, and Chrom with a slightly less thick but no less long blue one.

“Is every piece of clothing you own blue?” Robin asked, amused, after they had paid and resumed wandering down the streets. He had to admit he was much more comfortable with his neck and ears covered. “The only time I’ve seen you in anything else was at our wedding, and that hardly counts.”

“I don’t much think about it,” Chrom answered, looping an arm around him again. “Usually I don’t pick my own clothing designs, and when I do I just pick blue.”

“Hm.” Robin gave him a once-over. “Well, it works for you. Although I’m biased here.”

“My gloves are black,” Chrom said, attempting to sound serious and failing. “At the risk of gloves not counting.”

“They don’t.” Robin let his expression shift into a light, teasing smile. “Nor do your smallclothes, for that matter–ah, but most of those are blue as well. I should say socks, then.”

Chrom turned a faint pink. “Yes…well. Announce that for the whole world, would you…?”

They continued bantering on their slow walk around the city, in no hurry now that they were both more comfortable in the slightly chill winter afternoon. The day waned on, and before they knew it the sun was setting.

“We could head back in,” Chrom said, after a lighthearted debate on which of them would win an unarmed fight. “Or…we could grab dinner at a restaurant.”

Robin glanced at him in surprise at the hesitant comment. “Did you plan this?”

“Maybe,” was the awkward admission. “I wasn’t sure I’d get you outside for this long, truthfully. I know a few spots on the south end of the city that might be nice?”

He considered this. “Why not? It is a holiday. Of a sort. I can’t help but notice there are plenty of people working.”

“Not particularly strenuously, and not everywhere.” Chrom glanced at him. “I didn’t make up a holiday to get you out of the office.”

“I remembered it when you said it,” he protested. “I’m not accusing you of anything, and I’m not so desperate to while away the hours on unnecessary troop rearranging when you’ve already reminded me there are much better things to do.”

Chrom exhaled, his breath a puff of white fog in the air. “Good. Sometimes I can’t tell with you.”

“I’d have to be a complete fool to not want to spend the day with you, honestly,” he said frankly. “Well, I already am a complete fool, I know, but fortunately I’m one for you. So all it requires is a little tug into reality and I’ll be at your side when needed.”

A smile, but as Chrom opened his mouth there was the sound of a yell and a large thud not too far away. There were a few cries of dismay from off to the right. They didn’t even glance at each other before taking off in that direction.

There was a small crowd of people gathered around a slightly frail-looking building with snow all down the side–no, Robin realized, snow buildup had actually collapsed a part of the roof. People were milling about uncertainly. He knew none of the reconstruction crews were in that end of the city that day, too.

Chrom moved forward immediately, stepping through the crowd that parted for him on sight, Robin trailing in his wake. There was a young couple, not much older than them, standing staring at the building with looks of shock.

“Is anyone trapped inside?” Chrom asked them. Both started when they heard him.

“N-no, sire,” the man said, gaze doing the habitual flick to Chrom’s right arm for the Brand–covered by his jacket for the moment. “But that roof has been terrible even before the snow, and with the winds last night…”

“Robin,” Chrom began, but he’d drawn up alongside already.

“The construction crews are in the east side today,” he answered immediately. “I can fetch a few people from them, but that doesn’t help clear the snow.”

Chrom glanced at the onlookers and raised his voice. “Anyone here feel up to shoveling? I’m sure we can dig a few out somewhere.” To Robin, he said, “I think even with only one or two people helping I can get this cleared off by the time you get back.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said cheekily, leaning in to give Chrom a light kiss on the cheek before turning to head off. “I doubt I’ll be more than an hour. See you in a bit.”

He turned and sped off to the east, mentally reviewing where the teams would be and where the nearest likely was.

It proved to take slightly less than an hour to reach the nearest construction team, corral three members who felt up to rebuilding a roof, and lead them back south. Chrom and three of the former crowd along with the young couple were just finishing up shoveling the snow away. The construction team descended upon the hole in the wall and roof immediately as soon as they were clear, and Robin retreated to Chrom’s side.

“Little bit more of a personal level than we usually get with rebuilding,” he commented. “We should take walks more often.”

Chrom hummed in agreement. His scarf was wound more tightly around his neck, and his face was slightly red from exertion, but it didn’t seem to have taxed him much. “I’m more comfortable in a setting like this, with people directly. I know the work we’ve done with protecting people and organizing everything has been vital, but I prefer the hands-on work.”

The crowd had all but dispersed as the construction team had the project well in hand. Chrom grasped Robin’s hand and they started walking again, the former giving the couple a nod and the latter a small wave as they passed by. They appeared both astonished and overjoyed to have received such help, particularly when the lead of the construction team started lecturing her team on how they could certainly _improve_ the structure while they were there, now couldn’t they.

It was nearing full dark, so instead of sitting down at a restaurant, they picked up meat pies from a street vendor and wandered aimlessly back toward the castle, not in any rush. The torches were lit on the side of the buildings as they walked, not needing to speak and just enjoying each others’ company.

Because of their slow pace it was nearly nine in the evening by the time they reached sight of the castle gates, particularly since Chrom had insisted on a detour to pick up a bottle of brandy.

Instead of heading directly inside after entering the gates, Chrom lead him up the ramparts and they climbed together in silence up to the top, seating themselves on the outer wall and facing the city. It was Robin’s turn to wrap an arm around Chrom, resting his head on his shoulder. Chrom loosely held the bottle of brandy and leaned back into him.

They passed it between them still in silence, taking occasional drinks but mostly drinking in the sights of the city below they’d walked in, lit by flickering torch lights with people moving around. Ylisstol was ringing in the new year, a hopefully peaceful one, and its people were gathering places in preparation for midnight.

“I’ll get a full year out of this one,” Robin murmured, sometime around ten thirty. “Do you know, if you think about it, I’ve had a pretty eventful first year of 'life,’ as it were.”

Chrom passed him the bottle. “…It was, wasn’t it. Not all of it good…” a shadow passed over his face, and with a pang Robin knew he was thinking of Emmeryn, “but certainly not all bad either.”

“It doesn’t feel as if I’ve known you less than a year,” he said slowly. “Honestly, it feels like my whole life–well, for me, that’s the same thing I guess. But can you believe we only met about eight months ago?”

“Early April,” Chrom agreed. “It feels like longer to me, too. I can scarce believe we haven’t been together longer.”

Robin glanced down to the ring on his left hand and smiled softly. “Yes…although, we have plenty of time. This year and more.”

He took a drink and passed the bottle back, and another hour passed.

“Do we know your birthday?” Chrom asked suddenly. “I know we had to effectively miss mine–with everything–and gods know I’m thankful that we were on the road for that or it’d have been some extravagant function–but we might have skipped yours and never known.”

“I’d say something poetic about saying we can just say it was the day you found me, but I’m reasonably sure the roster named some time in March.” He considered this. “Assuming we are the same age, I’m actually at least two months older than you. Which means, sadly, I can’t be a trophy husband.”

Chrom snorted softly. “I’ve always thought of that term as meaning someone useless for anything save their looks–and you, my love, are far from useless.”

“I notice you say nothing about my looks,” he said easily, prying the bottle away. “That’s probably for the better, honestly. 'Great personality’ is how they’d describe me, I’m sure.”

“You barred me from speaking of your looks the last time we drank together,” Chrom reminded him. Ah yes, he of the infallible-when-drunk memory. “Something about embarrassing you.”

“Yes, well, you would use words like 'cute’ and 'sexy’ in the same sentence, wouldn’t you.” Robin sighed noisily and then took a drink. “You’re such a loudmouth drunk.”

“Just because I only _say_ those things when drunk doesn’t make them any less true the rest of the time,” Chrom said seriously. “Although, well…I wouldn’t normally say them in public…in a roomful of strangers and some of our friends.”

“It also isn’t customary even in our circumstances for both grooms to attend the same bachelor party, but both things were accomplished in one night.” He held out the bottle, and after a second Chrom took it. “I think our friends despair of us sometimes.”

“They can go ahead.” Chrom shook the near-empty bottle. “Hm. Almost out. But, yes. If you decide you’re fine with hearing about your looks again, I can give you a number of choice words when we retire to our chambers tonight.”

He shivered slightly at the suggestive tone and watched as Chrom finished off the last of the brandy.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” he murmured. Then, “it’s almost midnight, isn’t it?”

“We’ll hear the guards pop a couple bottles of champagne on the hour, but I think so, yes.”

“Ah, but doesn’t tradition dictate the kiss has to be exactly on the hour? And there’s no one to count down with us.” Robin indicated the ramparts, which they were indeed quite alone on. “We should just start now, and take the cork-popping noises to mean we’ve succeeded and should head in for the night.”

“This is a far cry from having to pry a quill from your hand, and I can’t say I’m complaining…” Chrom set the empty bottle down behind them on the walkway and made to lean in.

Robin beat him to it, reaching up to cup Chrom’s face in one hand and pressing his body forward. He let their lips brush softly, making Chrom’s part instinctually, allowing him to gently capture Chrom’s bottom lip between his. He sucked lightly there, making Chrom moan softly and tug Robin onto his lap.

Robin shifted his hands down to Chrom’s shoulders, pushing him back gently along the ramparts as he unfolded his legs so one hung over each side over Chrom’s to the walkway on one side and toward the city below on the other. Only then did he release Chrom’s lip and move back in immediately for a full kiss, going slowly and sweetly, fanning a small but hot flame instead of an inferno.

Chrom’s hands threaded into his hair almost helplessly, and Robin briefly enjoyed that he and he alone had the power to make the prince of Ylisse lie back like this, taking pleasure from his touch while they lay along the castle ramparts above the world. He trailed gloved fingers lightly up Chrom’s neck, not willing to break the kiss to move to slightly more suggestive spots just yet.

The sound of a dozen or so corks popping not too far in the distance alerted him to the time and he sat up, settling in around Chrom’s hips. Chrom was panting, lips slightly swollen from being thoroughly kissed, and Robin knew his own hair was probably quite as messy as the locks of dark blue that hung over Chrom’s forehead.Torchlight danced around them, making light of the new year, and there was laughter in the distance from the same direction as the corks popping.

“Shall we to our chambers then?” he asked after he’d caught his breath, which took a few moments.

Chrom swallowed. “Uh. Yeah. That was a hell of a midnight kiss.”

“Well it certainly beats a light peck on the lips at approximately midnight,” Robin mused as he slid off Chrom and onto the walkway. “I had to make sure we covered midnight, you see. I couldn’t make the mistake of defying the tradition by missing it.”

“Such a perfectionist,” Chrom said affectionately. “I rather like this tradition.”

“I’ll let you be a bit more hands-on like you like when we get inside,” he said, offering his arm. Chrom wordlessly accepted.

They made their way down toward the castle past the merriment elsewhere quietly, in no real rush, and went to ring in the new year together in the midst of a shining and recovering city.


End file.
